A lot of things have happened in the past few days concerning Zeta, BeOS, and Haiku. In order to create some order in the chaos, Eugenia and I have created a rough timeline of what happened the past 6-7 years. Read on for the timeline and some more thoughts on the matter. Update:Magnusoft ceases distribution of Zeta. Update II: Access answered the questions posed in the article.

Thanks for your blog. It is a good account of what has been said by Bernd, David (Access), & Magnussoft on the legal status of Zeta. I hope you update this blog post when more is revealed since it makes it easy to follow what is being said by the three main people involved.

Go Haiku go!

@doppeljot
Good post, I recall Bernd meeting with Jean-Louis Gassee (Be Inc CEO) and figured something had been worked out. At the very least it seems possible Bernd may have obtained a distribution agreement for BeOS 5.

But it is *possible* that he holds some type of development & distribution license for Zeta. But, if this was the case, were licensing fees paid to PalmSource and/or Access? No? And we should definately hear Bernd's response (side of things) *and* if he doesn't prove his rights, then Access should be granted ownership of Zeta.

@mmu_man Last I heard from remaining devs the fact remains to be asserted if they actually paid what they told they would.

I can't comment if Magnussoft paid the Zeta developers what they were owed. I do know that Bernd parts ways with Magnussoft and then posts that he wants to open source Zeta (give to Haiku) some days later after the split. Seemed like he was upset with Magnussoft & wanted to get back at them (that is the vibe I was getting).

Well, legal or illegal, that has to be worked out with Bernd & Access. So, let them figure this out because none of us have written proof of any of the agreements reached and only can guess.

I hope at least the following occurs:
#1 Zeta to still be sold so those who want to upgrade still can (does not matter who the owner is, Bernd or Access) and/or
#2 Open Source missing drivers to assist Haiku. (this probably won't happen now).